Mayo Clinic Health System Dialysis Center to break ground April 26 in Menomonie

Contacts: Susan Barber Lindquist, 715-838-3012

barberlindquist.susan@mayo.edu

Amy Mittlestadt, 715-233-7362

mittlestadt.amy@mayo.edu

MENOMONIE, Wis. — Dialysis is a life-sustaining treatment for people with kidney failure. To accommodate the growing need for dialysis services in the area, a new Mayo Clinic Health System Dialysis Center is being built in Menomonie.

A ground-breaking ceremony will be at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, in Menomonie. The new center will be across from Oaklawn Elementary School on 21^st

Street.

The 12,000-square-foot facility will have 24 dialysis stations, allowing the center to serve 96 patients. Cost of the project is $4.6 million.

Upon completion of the new center in spring 2012, the six-chair dialysis unit operated by Luther Midelfort at Red Cedar Medical Center in Menomonie will close. Those 24 patients will be transferred to the new free-standing Mayo Clinic Health System Dialysis Center in Menomonie.

The new unit will be open from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week when operating at full capacity. Most patients receive dialysis three times a week. Dialysis is a treatment process that performs the functions of healthy kidneys:

• Removes waste, salt and fluids to prevent them from building up in the body.
• Maintains safe levels of potassium, sodium and bicarbonate in the body.
• Helps control blood pressure.

A special feature of the new facility is the geothermal heating and cooling system. Geothermal systems, also called ground-source heat pumps, are among the most energy-efficient systems available. Water is crucial for dialysis treatments: water used for dialysis passes through a specialized treatment system to remove contaminants that can be harmful to patients with kidney disease. Pure water is necessary because the average dialysis patient is exposed to about 360 liters of fluid a week, whereas the average healthy person drinks 10 and 14 liters a week.

“Dialysis is a life-sustaining treatment often used when no other treatment options are available,” says registered nurse Dawn Tweed, director of Luther Midelfort’s Dialysis Services and Nephrology Department. “We are so pleased to be able to expand in Menomonie, where patient demand has been growing.”

The Menomonie location, which opened in 1999, was at capacity within six months of opening. Patients on the waiting list are treated at other Luther Midelfort dialysis centers, which are operated collaboratively with Mayo Clinic Dialysis Services. Luther Midelfort has dialysis centers in Barron, Menomonie and two in Eau Claire, serving a total of 170 patients. Dialysis also can be done at home.

Red Cedar Medical Center is assessing how to use the space vacated by dialysis to better meet the needs of Emergency/Urgent Care patients.

For more information about dialysis, call Luther Midelfort at 1-800-773-3171 (toll-free). Nephrology is the branch of medicine concerned with the kidneys. For information or to make an appointment with Luther Midelfort’s Nephrology Department, call 715-838-6595.

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